Monday, November 30, 2015

Meeting @ DMH, Nay Pyi Taw (24-Nov-2015)

So the day began at 5:45 am. We had to catch an early flight to Nay Pyi Taw. After almost an hour long flight we arrived at Nay Pyi Taw International airport at 8:00 am.

Early morning flight to Nay Pyi Taw

Since we had some spare time, and its on the way, we decided to have a look at the Parliament building. However, due to security reasons, we had to park our car around 0.5-1.0 km away. We clicked some pictures around there.

The road was very wide (8 lanes by 8 lanes)

You can see the Parliament building in the background

We reached DMH office at 8:45 am. We were a bit early. The meeting started at 9:30 am. It was attended by Dr. Kawasaki, Dr. Acierto, and myself from UTokyo side and by Mrs. Ye Ye Nyein, Dr. Tin Mar Htay and two other staff from Meteorology Division of DMH. Dr. Ralph gave a very informative presentation regarding his current method and framework for the climate change analysis study on Bago River basin. Following the presentation, DHM also shared their techniques and models used for their climate change analysis, WRF modelling and forecast issuance. We also discussed about data availibility and data sharing. DHM were very willing to share their data with us. The short meeting concluded on potential close collaboration and support between the two groups.

Later, Dr. Tin Mar Htay took us around the DMH buildings and showed us their operational forecating division, data server and other data collection systems.

After lunch we took our flight back to Yangon at 1:30 pm. We reached our holel at around 3:00 pm. Then me and Dr. Ralph went to the famous Shwedagon pagoda. It was his first time there and he was awestruck by its beauty. He seemed to be very happy as he had his camera with him. Mr. Genki also joined us there. Dr. Ralph said he took more than 100 pics (within 30 mins). We left for hotel to have dinner with Dr. Kawasaki at the hotel restaurant.

Happy Dr. Ralph!

It was a nice trip. And, eventhough for only 4 nights, I enjoyed my stay there. Looking forward to come back again sometime soon.